Svaneti Ski Championships Rough Cut

Just cut some clips for the kids in Svaneti. Hopefully you can get a taste of skiing in the developing world.

Bike'n eering

      While I ride, travel, and learn in Central Asia this summer, I'll be carrying warm gear for the high plateaus, where temperatures drop below 10 F even in summer. So why not climb some high walkups on the way to and from remote villages? I may not be Erden Eruc, a Turkish adventurer who's climbed Denali and ridden and rowed his way to a couple of seven summits. But in the greater ranges, a mountain bike allows access to trails and roads often limited to jeeps or donkeys. Sure, there are the folks at Ember Photography who bike and ski, and a few who bike and hike. But biking and mountaineering or trekking has yet to fully catch on in the adventure world. Might not be faster than a helicopter, but certainly faster than most pack animals, porters, and foot. And a lot cheaper, more reliable than jeeps, and helps with acclimatization along the way.
   
    I'm planning on trying out the concept off the Pamir highway on some 5-6,000 meter peaks and passes. Ride as far as possible over lunar landscapes to small villages or herders' camps near the Afghan border, then stash the bike, grab the pack that will be serving as a trailer bag, and start climbing easy snowfields and passes.

    This is somewhat of an experiment, as people occasionally stop on bike trips to hike but rarely spend multiple days off the bike or use the bike as a means of travel for overall purposes other than cycle-touring. The most noteworthy model is Goran Kropp's 1996 Sweden to Everest adventure, where he carried hundreds of pounds of gear from home to basecamp and back by bike. At Vantage, an area I used to frequent during the NW shoulder seasons for climbing, there is a plaque in his honor on "Air Guitar", where he zippered all his pro back in 2002. And I'm sure there are a few other examples of human-powered adventure to big peaks. But what about trips for the more casual, lower budget traveler. A mountain bike separates one from reliance on jeeps in remote areas, and allows flexibility required to make once-a-week international flights. All in all a good deal.

A picture to contemplate #2- herding in Tbilisi

A picture to contemplate #1.

Sometimes its just a face that strikes, or the scenery. The happiness in a middle schoolers' eyes during a ski race. In the US, he'd be decked out in a spandex suit, with velcro straps on his poles. Might be looking dead tired, or gritting teeth. And he would have been skiing for 10 years.
But in Svaneti, jeans and a sweater are the norm. Even in dumping snow and sloppy conditions, racers smile, take cocoa and coffee breaks mid-race, and some listen to the same American song on repeat through cheap over-the-ear headphones. Kids are happy on donated skis from Williams College and other places, but still often choose toddler Madshus skis and run rather than glide. Dynafit bindings are a foreign concept, and a national championship in slalom can be won on 15 year-old boots and skis with no edge left. Even as we've made skiing and racing about gear and speed in the US, our distorted reality hasn't followed USAID to other areas of the world. There's competition, and pre-competition arm wrestling, and podiums. But the racing is in good fun, skis are a community asset, and laps are done on a 1.5k course for fun, not training.

Testing mobile blog upload for Central Asia

> In anticipation of low bandwidth, posts will soon be parsed specially and uploaded via email when I'm traveling. If you have any desire to follow my trip through Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan on mountain bike and foot, please check back here soon. If you want to help, get a postcard, or have some quick questions about any Central Asian country, feel free to email me benski123@gmail.com.

Links to more photos and awesomeness

Uploading full-res takes a long time, so why not just head over to Facebook to check out photos.

Mestia and Hatsvali:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151579685821944.1073741832.613416943&type=1&l=d784e4f6fd

Mazeri and Becho 1:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151579670796944.1073741831.613416943&type=1&l=b2511ca9c1

Tbilisi:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151579660841944.1073741830.613416943&type=1&l=66fe529469

Some special shots from Svaneti and Georgia

Finally plugged my memory into a computer with a nice screen. No editing, but some better selecting of photos. I'm just starting to work through photo and video from the trip, and if there's anything you want a print or full-res of feel free to email be at benski123 @ gmail . com.
This has been one of my best trips ever and it'll be hard to not return for some months at least.